When designing an electronic form (a form to be filled out on a computer) with an electronic form designer program, there are many errors that can occur during the electronic form design process. Errors can be introduced at a variety of times during the design process and can be attributed to a variety of problems such as import problems, formatting problems, compatibility problems, runtime problems, and the like.
A location incompatibility error is an example of an easy to make error. A location incompatibility error might occur due to the fact that some electronic forms have features that work when the electronic form is used on a stand alone computer, but do not work when the electronic form is used in a different runtime environment. If, for example, an electronic form is designed for use on a stand-alone computer, more elaborate capabilities such as spell checking and file attachments may be available and embedded as functionality within the electronic form. However, if the same electronic form is then place on a web server so that it can be filled out with a web browser, the more elaborate capabilities may not be available for use, thus causing a location incompatibility error.
The location incompatibility error is only one of many potential design errors that can occur during an electronic form design process. These potential design errors can vary in severity and scope. Certain errors will prevent an electronic form from working, while more subtle errors can cause the electronic form to behave differently than intended. Error conditions in electronic forms are undesirable because they can cause a poor user experience for the eventual user of the electronic form. Additionally, error conditions in electronic forms can corrupt the data that an electronic form is designed to help capture.
Because errors are undesirable, it is important and useful to identify them and eliminate them during the design process. To assist in the identification and removal of errors, electronic form design programs often flag or report potential design errors during the execution of a step or a process that is associated with a certain type of error. This single warning is often the only time a user of an electronic form design program is made aware of a design issue that is an error or can potentially cause an error. For instance, an import error might only be reported to the user of an electronic form design program during the import of a file. As another example, an incompatibility error may only be reported to the user of an electronic form design program during a publishing phase of the electronic form. Identifying and fixing a single error can thus be a very time consuming process, if it is not fixed immediately when is identified. Appraised a user of errors in this sporadic manner, can make electronic form design, error identification, and error elimination very time consuming processes.
There are numerous potential sources of errors during the electronic form design process. Many of these numerous error sources report errors only when the errors initially occur, or when an action, such as publishing the electronic form, reveals the error. The numerous sources and methods of identifying errors make it difficult for a user to be aware of all the errors that exist or potentially exist at any given time. While learning about the errors is useful to the user of an electronic form design program, the above-described methods of identifying and reporting the errors can be frustrating, inconsistent, and very inefficient.